Archive for October 25th, 2011

The 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge

Enlightened CommUnity

Timothy Wilken, MD

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Summarize your proposal:

We propose to create a working prototype for Enlightened CommUnity. This prototype will be structured to support enlightened human behavior — kindness, compassion, calmness, peace, tranquility, intelligence, genius, wisdom, and goodness among our members. Who will work together utilizing the principles of Synocracy and Sociocracy to insure synergic harmony.

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Describe the critical need your solution addresses:

Our human species is in crisis. Every human knows we are in crisis. The evidence is all around us and fills the stories of our daily lives. Our crisis is fully human made. There is only one solution — that we work together and act responsibly.

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Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development:

Our current human behavior, and our current methods of organizing ourselves are helpless in solving our problems. If we are to surmount our human crisis, we will need to change our behavior, and change the way we organize our communities.

Today, our problems are so difficult that they are overwhelming our individual abilities to solve them. We are rapidly entering into a state of what I call individual overwhelm. It is becoming increasingly difficult for modern humans to solve their problems as separate individuals. But what is difficult for individuals working separately is often much easier for individuals working together. Instead of asking, “How can I meet my needs and solve my problems,” we must learn to ask, “How can we meet our needs and solve our problems?”

The word synergy derives from two Greek roots: erg meaning “to work,” and syn meaning “together.” Synergic science is simply the study of working together. Synergic science is revealing a new understanding of human behavior and of human organization, and a relatively simple solution to our human crisis — that we simply work together and act responsibly.

The human behavior that best supports acting responsibly is called Enlightenment. Enlightenment changes individual human behavior.

The organizational pattern that best supports working together is called CommUnity. When individuals form a CommUnity, they discover that they can accomplish much more by working together than they can by working separately. CommUnity utilizes synergic union. Examples of synergic union include operating together as in co-operation, laboring together as in co-laboration, acting together as in co-action, creating together as in co-creation, and thinking together as in co-intelligence. Synergic union requires shared responsibility, and of most importance, shared authority. CommUnity changes collective human behavior.

To exit our current human crisis will require nothing less than the creation of Enlightened CommUnities.

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How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

Enlightened CommUnities will share their knowledge and synergic mechanisms with all of humanity. The mission of a synergic civilization could be to grant every human:

1. Access to Land and the Earth’s natural resources for personal synergic use at no cost.

And we humans are granted access to land and the Earth’s natural resources for synergic co-operative production with payment of appropriate fees to the Earth Trust. All payments to the Earth Trust are to be used for the benefit of ALL — plants, animals, humans, and the Planet itself.

3. Access to plants and animals for personal synergic use. This includes pets, and service animals, as well as house plants, decorative plants and garden plants for personal use at no cost.

And we humans are granted access to plant and animal life for synergic co-operative production with the payment of appropriate fees to the Life Trust. All payments to the Life Trust are to be used for the benefit of ALL life — plants, animals, and humans.

6. Personal tools for modern living, such as smart phones, computers, etc., for personal and family reasons, for education, for synergic production and consumption, and for synergic consensus at no cost.

7. Personal and public transportation, that is safe and convenient at no cost.

8. Comprehensive education limited only by an individual’s ability and interest regardless of age at no cost.

9. Opportunity for participation in synergic co-operative production, as interest and talent allows, in order to earn revenue shares and to acquire property throughout their full lifetime.

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Compare and contrast your initiative:

There are three types of humans to be found in our present world. Which type you are depends on what you believe about how the world works.

Adversaries believe there is not enough for everyone and only the physically strong will survive. They believe humans are coercively dependent on others, and they best understand the language of force.

Neutralists believe there is enough for everyone, if only you work hard enough and take care of yourself. They believe humans are financial independent and should be self-sufficient unless they are too lazy or defective. They best understand the language of money.

And, finally a new type of human is still emerging. Synergists believe there is enough for everyone but only if we work together and act responsibly. They believe humans are interdependent and can only obtain sufficiency by working together as community. Synergists best understand the language of love.

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Provide details regarding the team and/or partners you have assembled:

Our team is composed of ordinary human beings committed to working together. The only requirement for membership in an Enlightened CommUnity is that you be human, and willing to work together, learn together, and to act responsibly.

We have formed a sociocratic intentional circle. This is a group of people who decide to create a new organization. It is our intention to create an Enlightened CommUnity in the Monterey, California area as a prototype for future human organizations.

We are meeting on a weekly basis, working together and acting responsibly. We make our decisions in heterarchy sharing responsibility and authority, and by using consensus and consent.

We organize our action teams in voluntary hierarchies where win-win relationships are the norm, and where the synergic veto prevents any and all members from losing in any interaction.

We understand that the future will require that we respect each other and all humans, and follow the Golden Rule.

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Describe your implementation plan:

Using the synergic tools of Synocracy, Sociocracy, Ortegrity, and GIFTegrity we will create the 8 Critical SubSystems necessary for Enlightened CommUnity

Outside:
This would be dealing with those individuals, other communities, and the states that are outside of our commUnity.

Inside:
This is the SubSystem that solves all internal problems for the members. This would include health care, conflict resolution, psychology, counseling, internal security, and administration of the privilege of individual reproduction. We will need to voluntarily reduce our population to a sustainable level.

Consumption:
This would be the mechanisms and processes for providing clean air, water, food, building materials and energy for shelter, security and production.

Production:
This would be designing, prototyping, and manufacturing of tools needed for community and individual activity. This would include large tools like dwelling machines, and/or factories as well as tools for individual needs.

Transportation:
This would be need to be developed to move people, resources, produce, and materials.

Reproduction:
This would address the need to reproduce more commUnities.

Communication:
This would be the tools for internal and external communication, and to support decision making and education.

Decision-Support:
Within a synergic community decisions are made throughout the community using synergic consensus and consent. The mechanism of synergic consensus and synergic veto are well explained on our website.

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What are the critical success factors that must be in place to achieve success?

The marriage of enlightenment with synergic commUnity. Only synergic behavior can produce synergic organizations, synergic commUnities, and a synergic civilization.

We can never have too much kindness, compassion, calmness, peace, tranquility, intelligence, genius, wisdom, and goodness in our world.

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What range of funding is needed to bring your project to fruition?

The more the better. We are committed to creating a positive future for ourselves and our children with or without funding. But any funding will help, and large funding will significantly increase the speed of implementation.